All yarn all the time

December 18, 2012

Sock Experiment

I have been experimenting with my travel socks, which are what I knit when I am standing in line or any other time I happen to be waiting. The sock on the left is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock sock yarn in the X-Mas Rock colorway. The experiment is that I cut the skein in half and knit one round with one half and then switch to the other half for the next round. I did this because my first attempt gave me an even uglier green stripe down the middle. I did stagger the colors when starting the second skein half, but as you can see, there is still a green stripe down the middle (and a yellow one down the back). So, I will give one of Yarnissima's patterns a try, either Brainless or Fire Starter. I will not be switching skeins either, as I found it to be a bit tedious and did not like the line of warped stitches where the skein change occured.

The other sock is Yarn Love in the Flirt colorway. I had tried this on size 0 (2.00 mm) needles and it was too small. I'm using my new Signature Needle Arts 2.25mm circular 32" needles and I'm not crazy about the needle join. When I go to move the stitches around to work the Magic Loop, the needle edge catches on the stitches and is a bit of work to push the needle through to the other side. The cord gets twisty, too, and I wonder if I will eventually break the join. I'm using Chia Goo size 2.00 mm on the X-Mas Rock socks. The cord is a bit stiff, but the join is much smoother. I like the joins on my Addi Turbo needles, but I bend those needles as I knit tightly, so my search continues for the perfect sock needles.

2 Comments

The colors of the STR yarn look great - really Christmassy. I understand your need to find the perfect circular needles as I am also going through the process. I am now trying Hiya Hiya and the cord and join feel good.

I have given up on the Signature needles after trying the dpn's. I kept splitting the yarn because they were so pointy and the color of the needles actually made it hard for me to see the stitches until they were at the point of the needles. I am sticking with my Addi 12", though I know that is too small for many people.